This week (March 4, 2008), Gary Gygax passed away.
Gary Gygax was one of the co-inventors of Dungeons and Dragons, the fantasy roleplaying game that had a large influence on gaming in the 70s and 80s. Although I never cared much for the specifics of the D&D system, I do recognize Gygax' influence on the way games developed in these years. Many ideas floating around these days can trace a line back to the initial D&D ruleset.
Being born in 1966, I was a bit too young to experience the early days of roleplaying, and I think it was somewhere during 1982 or 1983 that I first heard of roleplaying games. I had been playing classic board wargames since years, and it was a visit to the the Tin Soldier shop in Sint-Niklaas that exposed me this 'new type' of game. The AD&D books were too expensive for the budget of a high-schooler, so I walked away with a copy of a new game called 'Warhammer' and a Grenadier blister of Undead Orcs :-)
Anyway, I was browsing through my old copies of White Dwarfs (I'm taking about the days when WD was still a roleplaying magazine) yesterday, and it is entertaining to read those old articles and see how gaming was perceived during the Gygax days. You can almost feel the pioneering spirit, and how various developers were working and expanding the initial framework laid down by Gary Gygax.
All gaming that we do today, is really standing on the shoulders of giants.
Friday, 7 March 2008
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Great Northern War Swedish
These are Foundry GNW Swedish musketeers, and the first concrete results of [the project](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000284.html) to see the light of day.
I photographed them before they were based because I have no idea yet as to how to base them (to fit in with the rules I have not selected yet).
These took me quite a short time, about 5 hours in total, probably because they essentially have only two colours.
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
ACW Zouaves
This lot are Foundry ACW Zouaves, painted as the 1st Battalion Louisiana Zouaves. I spent just under an hour a figure on these (a bit longer than the [Carolingian spearmen](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000285.html), as these have more detail).
If anyone's interested and will be at the Red Barons show next Saturday, I'm thinking of putting these up for sale in the Bring and Buy.
Next up are 8 Foundry Swedish Great Northern War figures. [The project](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000284.html) starts.
Saturday, 9 February 2008
Carolingian spearmen
These are the 8 [Artizan](http://www.artizandesigns.com) Carolingian spearmen I finished over a week ago, but only managed to photograph today (lazy 'r' us):
They were finished metal to varnish in 3.5 2 hour painting sessions, so less than 1 hour per figure. I'm happy that I've been able to keep my painting perfectionist side down and painting volume up.
Next up are a set of 11 Foundry ACW zouaves, painted as the 1st Louisiane Zouaves (not the Louisiana Tigers), who are already about half done.
They were finished metal to varnish in 3.5 2 hour painting sessions, so less than 1 hour per figure. I'm happy that I've been able to keep my painting perfectionist side down and painting volume up.
Next up are a set of 11 Foundry ACW zouaves, painted as the 1st Louisiane Zouaves (not the Louisiana Tigers), who are already about half done.
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
A new project dawns
Occasionally in the life of a wargamer -- or quite often in some cases --
one gets the idea to start a new period. Today is such a time for me.
I have grown a bit weary of painting what are basically ununiformed more or
less hairy more or less barbarians. The few Copplestone Chinese infantrymen
I painted for our Tintin game gave me a taste for painting uniformed
figures, with all the advantages those have for batch, or dare I say
assembly line, style painting.
So, I was half unconsciously looking to get into a period featuring nice
uniforms. The nicest uniforms around are of course those of the horse and
musket period, so my thoughts quickly settled on that. But what to choose?
Napoleonics and Seven Years War are the main contenders in Europe (ACW and
AWI feature more prominently in the US), but they did not immediately
appeal, possibly because of the popularity. After a while, however, I
stumbled upon a period that has just the right mix of quirkiness and
popularity: the Great Northern War.
For those of you now going _'huh?'_, the Great Northern War took place over
the first two decades of the 18th century in the Baltic area, contemporary
with the War of Spanish Succession (better known as the Marlburian wars) in
Western Europe. It featured Sweden under King Charles XII, then a major
world power, against just about everyone else running around in that area,
most notably the emerging Russians under Peter The Great. At the end of the
war, Sweden was eclipsed and its leading position in the area taken over by
Russia, which became a world power in its own right.
The Great Northern War features Swedes and Russians of course, but also
Poles, Saxons, Danes, Norwegians, and what not. Enough variety to scare a
flock of flamingoes with. Now, being a somewhat less popular period, I'm
having some trouble finding good figures for them in the One True Scale
(28mm). So far, I've found Wargames Foundry, which have some Swedes and
Russians in their Marlburian range, and a manufacturer in the US who is
only
listed with a phone number and might not even be in business any more, but whose figures are nice enough, judging from a review on Magweb. I
haven't looked at Old Glory yet, but they will most probably have at least
a
few suitable bags. Does anyone know of any other suitable figure ranges?
And finally, what about rules? I have really no idea as to what rules to
use, so I 'm throwing that one out to you readers as well - what rules are
good for the early 18th Century Horse & Musket period?
one gets the idea to start a new period. Today is such a time for me.
I have grown a bit weary of painting what are basically ununiformed more or
less hairy more or less barbarians. The few Copplestone Chinese infantrymen
I painted for our Tintin game gave me a taste for painting uniformed
figures, with all the advantages those have for batch, or dare I say
assembly line, style painting.
So, I was half unconsciously looking to get into a period featuring nice
uniforms. The nicest uniforms around are of course those of the horse and
musket period, so my thoughts quickly settled on that. But what to choose?
Napoleonics and Seven Years War are the main contenders in Europe (ACW and
AWI feature more prominently in the US), but they did not immediately
appeal, possibly because of the popularity. After a while, however, I
stumbled upon a period that has just the right mix of quirkiness and
popularity: the Great Northern War.
For those of you now going _'huh?'_, the Great Northern War took place over
the first two decades of the 18th century in the Baltic area, contemporary
with the War of Spanish Succession (better known as the Marlburian wars) in
Western Europe. It featured Sweden under King Charles XII, then a major
world power, against just about everyone else running around in that area,
most notably the emerging Russians under Peter The Great. At the end of the
war, Sweden was eclipsed and its leading position in the area taken over by
Russia, which became a world power in its own right.
The Great Northern War features Swedes and Russians of course, but also
Poles, Saxons, Danes, Norwegians, and what not. Enough variety to scare a
flock of flamingoes with. Now, being a somewhat less popular period, I'm
having some trouble finding good figures for them in the One True Scale
(28mm). So far, I've found Wargames Foundry, which have some Swedes and
Russians in their Marlburian range, and a manufacturer in the US who is
only
listed with a phone number and might not even be in business any more, but whose figures are nice enough, judging from a review on Magweb. I
haven't looked at Old Glory yet, but they will most probably have at least
a
few suitable bags. Does anyone know of any other suitable figure ranges?
And finally, what about rules? I have really no idea as to what rules to
use, so I 'm throwing that one out to you readers as well - what rules are
good for the early 18th Century Horse & Musket period?
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Romano British command and their very late cousins
Just to prove that I wasn't kidding [yesterday](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000282.html), here's the latest painting results:
And their somewhat later cousins:
The first set are Foundry 28mm Romano British cavalry command figures, the second are Modern British 1/285th GHQ figures.
And their somewhat later cousins:
The first set are Foundry 28mm Romano British cavalry command figures, the second are Modern British 1/285th GHQ figures.
Monday, 21 January 2008
It lives...
Just as we were ready to pronounce it dead and buried, the ancient beast
shudders, sloughs off layers of dust and sleepily opens one eye to peer at
the world outside. Yes, TTM still lives.
Due to a variety of reasons, some personal, some not, I haven't posted
anything here since the first half of last year. Lots of things happened
since then, some of which conspired to stop the regular flow of posts here.
That said, I'd like to kickstart things again with a 'what are you working
on' type of post (that phrase is not chosen at random, see further on).
I've
recently started painting again after several months' inaction (long enough
to forget most of my 'paint recipes'), and these are things I've recently
finished or am working on at the moment:
* A GHQ Modern British combat command (1/285th) (essentially a reinforced
infantry
battalion) - these are all finished. The idea is that we start some kind
of a 'Cold War turned hot' project soon(ish). Frank is doing Germans,
Koen is
doing Russians, and Alan has been making noises about acquiring some
Russians
too. I'm looking at [Cold War Commander](http://www.blitzkrieg-commander.com/cwc.aspx) for this project.
* 4 Romano British cavalry command types (Foundry 28mm) (1 leader, 2
standard bearer, 1
musician) to round out my RB cavalry units. These are finished but for
the
bases.
* I just started the first batch of 8 [Artizan
Designs](http://www.artizandesigns.com) [Carolingian spearmen](http://www.artizandesigns.com/catalogue.asp?sub_range=19). These
are my next Dark Ages army and might feature in a Carolingians vs Vikings
in Leuven game sometime in the future.
The last two painting sessions I did went very well (a bad painting session
is one where I break out all the stuff and than twiddle about doing not
much
at all, putting everything away after painting just 1 layer on three
figures
or so), which I attribute to a [tip of Phil's](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000280.html) - listening to podcasts
while painting. I went through the latest episodes of [The Naked Scientists
podcast](http://www.thenakedscientists.com), [What are you working on](http://waywo.podbean.com/)
(aha) and [All about miniatures](http://allaboutminiatures.libsyn.com/) while painting the latest batches of
figures, and find it works very well. It is an unintrusive enough way of
keeping your mind occupied while painting, yet not intrusive enough to
distract from the painting (as TV tends to do). I think I'll be doing this
a
lot more - thanks for the suggestion Phil.
Finally, the biweekly Schild en Vriend games have been going on strong,
with
an ACW game (the Henry Hill action of [1st Bull Run](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Bull_Run) ) and a Blitzkrieg
commander game (German invasion of Belgium in 1940) having featured
recently. Photos of the latter can be found [on Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/robartes/sets/72157603766251744/).
That's it for now, and let's try to get some more posts up.
shudders, sloughs off layers of dust and sleepily opens one eye to peer at
the world outside. Yes, TTM still lives.
Due to a variety of reasons, some personal, some not, I haven't posted
anything here since the first half of last year. Lots of things happened
since then, some of which conspired to stop the regular flow of posts here.
That said, I'd like to kickstart things again with a 'what are you working
on' type of post (that phrase is not chosen at random, see further on).
I've
recently started painting again after several months' inaction (long enough
to forget most of my 'paint recipes'), and these are things I've recently
finished or am working on at the moment:
* A GHQ Modern British combat command (1/285th) (essentially a reinforced
infantry
battalion) - these are all finished. The idea is that we start some kind
of a 'Cold War turned hot' project soon(ish). Frank is doing Germans,
Koen is
doing Russians, and Alan has been making noises about acquiring some
Russians
too. I'm looking at [Cold War Commander](http://www.blitzkrieg-commander.com/cwc.aspx) for this project.
* 4 Romano British cavalry command types (Foundry 28mm) (1 leader, 2
standard bearer, 1
musician) to round out my RB cavalry units. These are finished but for
the
bases.
* I just started the first batch of 8 [Artizan
Designs](http://www.artizandesigns.com) [Carolingian spearmen](http://www.artizandesigns.com/catalogue.asp?sub_range=19). These
are my next Dark Ages army and might feature in a Carolingians vs Vikings
in Leuven game sometime in the future.
The last two painting sessions I did went very well (a bad painting session
is one where I break out all the stuff and than twiddle about doing not
much
at all, putting everything away after painting just 1 layer on three
figures
or so), which I attribute to a [tip of Phil's](http://www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/000280.html) - listening to podcasts
while painting. I went through the latest episodes of [The Naked Scientists
podcast](http://www.thenakedscientists.com), [What are you working on](http://waywo.podbean.com/)
(aha) and [All about miniatures](http://allaboutminiatures.libsyn.com/) while painting the latest batches of
figures, and find it works very well. It is an unintrusive enough way of
keeping your mind occupied while painting, yet not intrusive enough to
distract from the painting (as TV tends to do). I think I'll be doing this
a
lot more - thanks for the suggestion Phil.
Finally, the biweekly Schild en Vriend games have been going on strong,
with
an ACW game (the Henry Hill action of [1st Bull Run](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Bull_Run) ) and a Blitzkrieg
commander game (German invasion of Belgium in 1940) having featured
recently. Photos of the latter can be found [on Flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/robartes/sets/72157603766251744/).
That's it for now, and let's try to get some more posts up.
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Hai, we has SQL
Yes, this blog has been a bit neglected of late (more on that later). That also means that it accumulated _a lot_ of junk comments (8477 or so) which would have meant a lot of point and clicking to remove it.
Luckily, [Dreamhost](http://www.dreamhost.com) gives one command line access to everything, including the mysql database behind TTM, so I went in and took out all of the comments after the latest legit one in one fell swoop. A few seconds work instead of a few days. Sometimes, being a bit of a geek is fun.
As to the reason there's not much happening around here (apart from Phil, thank god for that) is that I've been in a bit of a wargaming funk since Easter or so. I haven't painted or done anything wargame related, except play a few games. It's one of those phases. Trust me, it will pick up again.
Luckily, [Dreamhost](http://www.dreamhost.com) gives one command line access to everything, including the mysql database behind TTM, so I went in and took out all of the comments after the latest legit one in one fell swoop. A few seconds work instead of a few days. Sometimes, being a bit of a geek is fun.
As to the reason there's not much happening around here (apart from Phil, thank god for that) is that I've been in a bit of a wargaming funk since Easter or so. I haven't painted or done anything wargame related, except play a few games. It's one of those phases. Trust me, it will pick up again.
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Miniature Wargaming Podcast
Recently, I have been looking for a podcast related to miniature wargaming. The advantage is that one can listen to wargaming-related news and stories while driving the car, or even when painting.
After some search, I found the following, which I think is very good. The hosts have a pleasant style of presenting, and the topics are varied and well-researched. Their sense of humour is also to my liking, so that's a bonus!
http://allaboutminiatures.libsyn.com/
After some search, I found the following, which I think is very good. The hosts have a pleasant style of presenting, and the topics are varied and well-researched. Their sense of humour is also to my liking, so that's a bonus!
http://allaboutminiatures.libsyn.com/
Thursday, 5 July 2007
Wargaming in style
Below is a clip from a British tv-series from the early 70s (I assume), "Callan". Watch the whole sequence: 2 gentlemen playing a wargame in a spacious wargaming room.
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